(dpa/TBI Africa.comNAN) Fifty children have been rescued from abuse in an international probe into a website depicting child abuse, international police agency, Interpol on Thursday said.
Interpol child abuse researchers came across images of the abuse of 11 boys in early 2017 during routine monitoring of secret internet sites, the so-called darknet or darkweb.
Investigators relied on the physical features of the 11 victims and managed to track them and the abuser to Thailand, where the latter was identified as the website’s main administrator.
A second administrator was arrested in Australia and police found thousands of images taken in both Thailand and Australia on his devices.
Australian, Bulgarian, New Zealand and U.S. authorities all assisted the probe, Interpol said.
The main website administrator was sentenced to 146 years in prison in Thailand in 2018 on child rape, human trafficking and child sex abuse material charges.
An associate got a 36-year sentence.
The Australian-based administrator was jailed for 40 years and three months last week in what Interpol said was the longest ever sentence imposed in Australia for child sex offences.
Interpol said that they were still trying to identify another 100 children they believed had been abused. Investigations, arrests and rescues are likely to continue for several years.
